How to find out when and where newish movies will be boradcast before DVD/BD release

April 2, 2012 12:18 PM

Is there a reliable way to find out when and where a movie that's too old to be in first run theaters but too new to be airing on cable and/or streaming will be available to watch? Example inside.

We missed Haywire when it was in theaters. Via Amazon, I can see it will be available on DVD and BD here in the states in May. Barring searching the schedule for each cable channel, I'm having a little difficulty finding out if/when it will be broadcast or offered on demand in the interim. Is there a trick for quickly looking this up that I'm missing? Like a site like Moviefone or Box Office Mojo but that covers what channels and services have the broadcast, streaming, etc. rights to new movies that have finished their theatrical runs? Or a magic search string that works every time?

posted by Lentrohamsanin to media & arts (12 answers total)

It is very unusual for a studio to air a movie on cable (or a streaming service like Netflix, Hulu, etc) between the time it leaves the theater and the time the DVD is released. They would be shooting themselves in the foot.
posted by HuronBob at 12:33 PM on April 2, 2012

Huh, really? It's been ages since I've bothered to look at this path, but I thought they got prime money for selling the exclusive broadcast/streaming rights in this period between theatrical and home video release. Wasn't that the case at one point?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:37 PM on April 2, 2012

Yeah, there's a couple of lesser-publicized windows in between first-run theaters and the disc release; among them are cheaper "second-run" theaters, airlines, and cruise ships.

Looking online, it looks like Haywire is still playing in Mesquite and Irving TX and Tallahassee, Fl.
posted by Oktober at 12:38 PM on April 2, 2012

> Wasn't that the case at one point?

Currently I think individual titles may end up streaming before they are released on DVD/Blu-Ray, e.g. I believe Netflix had Che on streaming about a month before it hit DVD/Blu-Ray. But it's not a regular thing by any means.
posted by dgeiser13 at 12:42 PM on April 2, 2012

This is very rare. I recall this being done for one of Nicholas Cage's recent movies and some Indy films that were "popular" (think Melancholia) but nothing high-caliber ("high-caliber" doesn't necessarily mean good, mind you, just main-stream big budget).

To that end, even if you find some source with this info, it's probably not going to be that useful.
posted by Patbon at 1:13 PM on April 2, 2012

Cool, guess I misremembered how this worked. Thanks everyone!
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 1:20 PM on April 2, 2012

I know of a couple sites that give streaming availability for movies:

http://www.canistream.it/ -- Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Crackle, YouTube, Epix + the ability to set alerts

http://www.watchily.com/ -- Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Cinemax Go (Max Go), Comcast XFINITY, HBO Go, iTunes, Redbox, Showtime Anytime, Vudu, but no alerts

Will be interested to see if there's anything that will provide specific dates.
posted by woodman at 1:22 PM on April 2, 2012

If you're looking for public screenings and not just broadcast, you could try calling Swank Motion Pictures, the company that handles public screening rights for many second-run theater screenings (usually screenings done on college campuses and that kind of thing) as well as for the airplane/bus/hotel/cruise (even prison!) screenings of the sort Oktober mentions.

I don't know if they'd actually be willing to give you information about bookings in your area or not as I've never tried it, but it couldn't hurt to call and ask.
posted by bubukaba at 1:28 PM on April 2, 2012

I know of a couple sites that give streaming availability for movies:

http://www.canistream.it/ -- Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Crackle, YouTube, Epix + the ability to set alerts

http://www.watchily.com/ -- Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Cinemax Go (Max Go), Comcast XFINITY, HBO Go, iTunes, Redbox, Showtime Anytime, Vudu, but no alerts


Thanks for that. I rarely watch anything streaming, and this is why, trying to figure where something is available. I thought someone had to be doing this, but couldn’t find it.
posted by bongo_x at 5:46 PM on April 2, 2012

Hmmm the way I read the question, he was asking more for those Pay-Per-View type things, like how he could maybe go to hotel and pay $19.99 (or something equally ridiculous) to watch the movie before it came out on TV, as opposed to just "renting" from a blockbuster/netflix/hulu kind of thing. I think that might be a different release schedule than the DVD/streaming crowd.
posted by Grither at 4:00 AM on April 3, 2012

Also Watch It guides you through all of the different release windows as titles reach each window.
posted by dgeiser13 at 4:52 AM on April 3, 2012

You're not crazy. It's becoming increasingly normal for movies to be released through cable On Demand services during and immediately following their theatrical release. However it's mainly for films from smaller distribution companies, who don't have the resources for a wide theatrical release. The main ones doing this now are IFC Films and Magnolia, who put out Che and Melancholia as mentioned above. They'll put their movies in a small amount of theaters nationwide, but put it on VOD at the same time and leave it there for a good couple of months.

Big studios are not doing this yet. If your taste is more Marvel superheroes and less Lars Von Trier, you're stuck until the DVD. Check the distributor.
posted by Smallpox at 7:46 AM on April 3, 2012